When you’re a student money can be scarce. Despite that it is important to be able to have a good computer, especially for doing your college work. You need a machine that can handle pretty much anything you can throw at it. Whether that is simple power point presentations or putting together graphics in Photoshop you need a computer you can rely on no matter what. Finding cheap student desktop Computers under $500 is a bit rough, but it’s not impossible. You just need to know how to shop and what to look for.

Build it Yourself.

The easiest way get a cheap desktop computer is to put it together yourself. If you buy the individual components yourself you will know exactly what you are getting and what it is capable of. Building your own PC and assembling it is not as difficult as it sounds and there are plenty of videos on YouTube to help you with this task. You’ll need some basic tools and to make sure you shop for the following components:

Computer Case

Power Supply

Mother Board

CPU

Ram

Hard Drive

Optical Drive

GPU/Video Card (optional)

Once you have all of these items you can build a functioning computer. Majority of the components are relatively in expensive, but depending on what you buy you can easily stay within budget. If you don’t want t shop for individual components you can still save some money by building it yourself while purchasing a kit. Newegg.com has several kits that only require assembly but come with all the parts you need to put together a functioning desktop computer.

Buy a Prebuilt Cheap Computer

There are some computers that are already assembled and affordable. They won’t be very powerful and have all the latest features but that’s okay. One of the great benefits of desktop computers vs laptops is how easy it is to perform large scale upgrades to them. You can buy a cheap computer and over time you can upgrade it to be a power house with minimal effort.

At this price range you are likely to still get a computer with an i3 or even i5 dual core processor but don’t expect to get quad core or better without spending more money. Some decent brands you’ll be able to afford under $500 are: Gateway, Asus, Acer and HP, possibly even Dell. The most important feature to focus on in this range is going to be the CPU, you can easily upgrade the hard drive or the ram without spending a lot of money the CPU is going to the most expensive component. Don’t worry about the GPU/Video Card since it is really optional o

When you are on a budget and are assessing cheap desktop computers for your child, whether you don’t want to invest much money either because the child is young or because he or she only needs it for school to surf the internet, take notes and write papers, here are two suggestions for ideal answers to this quest.

Be aware that these will NOT run specialized software traditional programs such as iTunes or Microsoft Office, load up a hard drive with gigabytes of music, play games, or be the answer if the school absolutely recommends a Mac or a PC.

There is no expensive software to buy, it boots up in less than 20 seconds, there is nothing complicated to learn, it updates itself, it requires almost no setup or maintenance, stores and accesses with 100 GB of Google Drive free for two years, viruses and malware are taken care of, it is always backed up, it springs in and out of sleep mode almost instantly, and it comes with favorite Google apps and offline apps for times when you are disconnected from the web. It does not run Windows or Mac; it runs Google’s web-based operating system, Chrome OS, so you need reliable Wi-Fi access. Instead of Microsoft Office, you will use Google Docs. There are three USB expansion ports and an Ethernet port to connect to a hard-wired network.

Other features include a 11.6″ screen, a Celeron processor, 16 gigabytes of flash storage, two gigabytes of RAM, dual band Wi-Fi, up to four hours of battery, 12 free Gogo Inflight passes, and is only one inch thick and weighs a light three pounds.

Your files and data will auto-save. If this computer gets stolen or destroyed, you won’t lose any work. You just buy another one, log in to Google with your credentials, and everything will be there.

If you don’t mind saving money by purchasing an off-lease product that has been inspected, repaired, cleaned and re-packaged after having been returned by a customer after a lease period, this is a good suggestion. There may be minor scratches or slight wear on the keyboard, but it does have a limited warranty.

This efficient Desktop PC is equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33GHzProcessor and 4GB of DDR2 Memory for fast speed and massive power, a DVDRW optical drive so you can add programs from CDs and DVDs. a massive 750GB HDD with space for mammoth-size digital data, a Gigabit Ethernet LAN to download tons of free multimedia contents from different sites, and more.

The operating system is a genuine Microsoft Windows® 7 Home Premium 32-Bit and is easy to set up.

You can see that some cheap desktop computers are indeed designed to be faster and easier as well as being easy on the wallet.

There are many computer companies that offer cheap desktop PCs that cost well under $100. Many of these computers are models that were released during the early to mid 2000s. Most cheap desktop computers are refurbished units that are sold by brand name companies.

Companies such as Dell, Levono, Apple, Acer and Sony all sell refurbished units that are inexpensive but effective. Most computers that cost under$100 have at least 700 GHz of processing speed, 256 GB of RAM and 40 GB of HD. While these specs are far below the norm when compared to modern PCs, they are useful for writing documents and surfing the web. These types of computers are also great for younger children to have so they can learn how to properly handle a desktop unit.

The best inexpensive PC brands include Dell, Levono and Acer. Compaq also has some great refurbished computers as well. Many of these PC companies were big during the 90’s and throughout the 2000s when PCs were the primary computing devices. They have a lot of available units left over from the previous era that have been remodeled and made into good shape.

Many computer brands offer inexpensive computers online, used computer stores and local flea markets. People can also find inexpensive used computers from online classified ads sites or in local newspapers. Sometimes companies give away free inexpensive computer units to low-income or needy people as a part of their philanthropy service to certain communities.

When a company sells an inexpensive desktop model it usually does not come with a monitor, keyboard or mouse. People will have to purchase these items separately. This fact will raise the cost of building a computer system. Many companies that sell used computer units also sell used monitors. Consumers can also purchase other accessories from these businesses or retail outlets that provide these items.

So you need a new desktop computer but you don’t have a lot of money. This sounds like just about every person out there, and there is still hope for everyone. There are cheap computers out there that can function quite well, allowing you to do things such as research, internet access, gaming and school work. And cheap means you are going to save money without having to have some trashy machine that crashes on you every few minutes. The Dell computer company has been making computers now for a long time and while they may not be the first name that pops into a person’s head when they think of computers they do have cheap Dell desktop computers under $300. (more…)

Budgeting your money so you can afford a computer can take some time, and patience. But you don’t need to be saving forever just to get a good computer that you can work with, either for school or business. And many of the cheap HP desktop computers under $300 can still have fun with games so it’s not all about work. But be mindful of what you are buying and don’t expect them to be the fastest operating systems either. Most of them come with Intel processors and may not come with the monitor, keyboard or mouse, depending on what you are looking for. Watching the sales though can get you those extras for cheaper than it costs to buy a complete computer setup sometimes. (more…)